Saturday 3rd June
The boatyard office was due to open at nine o'clock, giving us no reason to get up quite so early as we had been during the week, so we left it till about a quarter past eight. A light breakfast of tea and biscuits, then we got down to the packing and cleaning up. There was a short pause for a group photograph, since I wasn't too confident about the weather and wanted to take the shot before it started raining again. The formalities with the boatyard concluded, we left about half past nine.
At the pub yesterday evening, we reflected on the week as a whole. We felt that the need to get through the Tardebigge Flight on the first day had got us off to a good start. We were right into it straight away. Similarly, having to get onto the Severn before the level got too high meant that we had to keep up this initial momentum. In comparison with this, we rather lost momentum once we got to Birmingham. There were various things we wanted to do — and in fact we did all that we'd originally aimed for — but there was not the urgency that comes with having to complete a loop.
There were various other features. Alan and June had recently become interested in observing birds, and they had plenty of opportunity this week. There were also other fauna — including the odd water rat on the Walsall Canal. Indian food was certainly a significant part of the holiday, with only one day on which not even one of us had a Balti.
Debates on the merits of the various pub and restaurant sanitary facilities added, as usual, a little spice of controversy. One of our group was amused to overhear the following conversation at one of the pubs: 'A bit dirty in here, isn't it?' 'You should have seen it yesterday. The drains overflowed and there were ***** floating all over the floor!'
The boat has been pretty good. It steered and handled well. (There were mixed feelings on the fact that its tiller arm was shorter than the last boat we had. I preferred it, since there was less need to keep stepping forwards out of the way of the tiller arm when moving the rudder from one side to the other. Others preferred to be able to stand further forward while steering, which the longer arm allows.)
Minor drawback were the fact that the engine exhaust was more smoky than we'd had on most previous boats, and that it was a bit more cramped in the area of the weed hatch, making it quite awkward to get rid of weeds and other rubbish round the propeller. We'd noticed some paving-stones under a couple of the benches on the starboard side at front and rear, which were clearly ballast. We presume that some of the heavier kitchen items such as the dishwasher were added at a later stage in the boat's history, so that the balance of the ballast had to be adjusted in this way.
The kitchen was good, in terms of its general layout, which is always difficult to judge until you actually come to use it. It was well equipped as regards cooking utensils, crockery and cutlery, where many boats can be deficient. We never found that we needed something that wasn't there. Regarding the larger items of kitchen equipment, it was actually rather more fully equipped than we really needed. For us, a microwave — and certainly a dishwasher — were quite superfluous. We never use a television, but all the boats have them, and this time we didn't bother asking them to take it out to make more room.
The mains-type supply was useful in various ways (laptop, hoover, hair-dryer), but the generator was very noisy. One of our previous boats also had a 240 volt supply, and quite a powerful one, but it didn't need a generator. I presume it worked from the main battery using an inverter, which didn't make any noise at all.
The beds were comfortable. The shower was good, with a pressure as great as a shower you'd get in a house. The heating worked well. The toilets were a strange mixture. The door on one opened inwards, making it quite a squeeze to get in. The door on the other opened outwards, and it was voted the best narrowboat W.C. we'd so far encountered.
I notice in passing that we're definitely getting more choosy about boats. I can remember a few years ago when we were very impressed when we got a boat with a fixed double-bed rather than one you have to put together every night by converting the dining-room furniture. Now we tend to take that for granted. I think that boats generally are coming to be better equipped, and perhaps we're getting used to this. One feature I liked about that earlier boat I just mentioned, was that it had just a single door at the front. (It also happened to be set to one side rather than in the middle of the front face.) All the other boats we've had, including this year's, have had double doors, each with top and bottom sections, so that there are four catches required to fasten them back if you don't want them to flap around in the wind.
All in all, I'd say that if we put all the boats we've ever hired in order of merit, this one would come quite near the top. I think we'd all be quite happy to use it again, though I'd have to find a way to use the laptop without needing the 240 volt supply, since the generator is so noisy. On the other hand, we wouldn't put it in the very top rank, with the one or two boats which were so good that we'd make a particular effort in order to be able to hire them rather than any other boat. Since we've each been on about a dozen narrowboat holidays (more in Penny's case), that's still quite good going all the same.